The Stage

Crowning glory

Published Monday 23 November 2009 at 15:50

E/T/C UK’s Ross Ashton has designed a specially commissioned projection artwork for Durham Cathedral as part of the four-day Lumiere Durham Festival of Light event, curated and co-ordinated by Artichoke. Ashton’s work, Crown of Light, covered the entire north fascia of the cathedral including all sides of the three towers, Durham Cathedral dating back to 1093 and being a designated UNESCO world Heritage Site. Ashtonn received an initial brief from Artichoke about the narrative and direction of the show, taking these as a creative starting point for the storyboard. The story encompassed the history of the cathedral, including the Lindesfarne Gospels, noted for their accompanying imagery and Celtic calligraphy. Along with Paul Chatfield, Ashton evolved the PIGI projection artwork over a period of two weeks, simultaneously collaborating with musical director Robert Ziegler who compiled a soundscape for the 16-minute show, and sound designer John Del’Nero who designed the audio system. The projection system utilized seven PIGI 6KW machines with double rotating scrollers, positioned at various distances around the cathedral, being meticulously calculated to eliminate any shadowing from the numerous trees dotted around the cathedral gardens, this being one of the major creative and technical challenges of the project. The show, which ran eight times nightly, and the other Lumiere installations, involving over 50 UK and international artists, are said to have attracted up to 75,000 people into the city centre each evening.

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